GARVIN COUNTY INDIAN PIONEER PAPERS

OKGenWeb Indian Pioneer Papers Collection

Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers

Charley W. Grant

Interview #4814
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: July 15, 1937
Name:   Mr. Charley W. Grant
Residence: Wynnewood, Oklahoma
Date of Birth:  1874
Place of Birth: Near Fort Arbuckle, Chickasaw Nation
Father: Tom Grant, born in Kentucky
Mother: Margaret Howe, born in Mississippi 

 

I was born about a half mile north of old Fort Arbuckle, in the Chickasaw Nation, in 1874.  My father was Tom Grant. 

After the soldiers were sent to Fort Sill from Fort Arbuckle, my father bought Fort Arbuckle for fifty dollars.  I believe he made this buy in 1873, but this took place before I was born.

My mother was the daughter of William Howe, Choctaw Indian, and the owner of the first store at Eagletown.  My mother said the post office was in the store and she helped my father in the store and took care of the mail.

I have heard her say during the War she had sent out several white men's scalps.  The Indians from Mississippi, when they killed a Yankee soldier, would scalp him.  They would send the scalp back to Mississippi to show their friends what they had done.  She said that there had been several sent from Eagletown while she was working in the store.

My father delt in cattle; owned a ranch located on Line Creek where Chickasha is now.  He also owned a large ranch north of Fort Arbuckle. 

In 1887, my father sent me to his ranch on Line Creek.  He had at that time about five thousand head of cattle on this ranch.  There were three men working there then, so he sent me up there to take charge of the ranch.  I was only about thirteen years old, but I had been herding cattle ever since I was big enough to climb on a horse.  My father told me to stay with the cattle until late in the fall, then bring them to the home ranch.

In November, I believe, one of the men who was working with me quit and that only left the other two men and me to bring the cattle through.  It took us four days to drive this herd of cattle to the ranch at Fort Arbuckle.  The cattle came through fine without any stampedes. 

It doesn't take much to start a stampede.  I remember one time I was helping bring a herd of cattle from Texas to Fort Arbuckle.  Everything was going along fine when all at once the horse I was riding stumbled and fell.  The cattle broke into a run and we were several days getting them back together again.

My father had a large orchard at the home place where I was born.  My mother always had the dugout full of canned apples and peaches.  She had preserves setting in this dugout that had been put up for five years.  We always had plenty to eat but I have been tot he homes of several of the new comers who moved into this country when I was a small boy.  They would ask me to dinner with them and for many a noon meal, they would have only cornbread and wild greens of some kind.  People moving into this country would have it hard for a while unless they brought plenty with them.

My father owned a store at old Cherokee Town, and one at Fort Arbuckle.   I believe a Mr. Blackburn owned the first store at Fort Arbuckle and my father bought him out. 

I now live on the old home place at Fort Arbuckle.